Over the years I've developed a pretty simple system with no exotic or secret ingredients. It's easy, quick, fast, durable, looks good to me and can be repaired, if needed. If I want stain, I treat the wood with oxalic acid, then use alkanet soaked in turpentine and oil (linseed, teak, tung or other commercial oil). If that doesn't get the color I want (some woods just don't seem to take the color for me), then I use analine dye. Use either until you get the color you want.
I then sand in with 320 to 400 grit sandpaper a mix of approx. 1/3 turpentine, 1/3 oil (teak, linseed, tung or other commercial product) and 1/3 flat or satin poly followed by wiping. Recoat until the pores are filled. Then I rub in the finish repeatedly with pumice/rottenstone and wipe dry with paper towel or old t-shirt. Repeat until you get the final finish you desire.
I've found that a day between coats usually allows sufficient drying time for the sanded coats and for the rubbed coats, and usually 5 or 6 coats is sufficient to fill the pores and a few rubbed coats achieve the results I want. If it later needs to be redone, you can just rub in a coat of the finish.
Of course, then I usually see a minor change I want to make in the shape. Fortunately, you can rasp and sand the area you want to change and can repeat the process on only the area from which you have removed the finish, and the patch blends in well altho you might have to extend the rubbing into the finished area.

Last edited by cpa; 03/29/20 09:17 PM.